The recent killing of Banko Brown by an armed Walgreens security guard has put a focus on the work of these employees. While they often take on similar roles to cops, armed security guards are not public employees but often low-paid civilians with few protections when they kill someone on the job, and they don’t get proper training on things like use of force or de-escalation either.

That’s all supposed to change after the 2019 killing of a man by a security officer in Sacramento, which led to a bill meant to increase the state training standards for security guards.

Episode transcript

Guest: Marisa Lagos, a politics correspondent for KQED and co-host of the political breakdown podcast. 

Links:

This episode was produced by Alexander Gonzales, Jehlen Herdman, Maria Esquinca, and Ericka Cruz Guevarra, and hosted by Ericka Cruz Guevarra

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